As the week of December 14, 2020, comes to an end, students need to finish the Semester off with a high-quality final, and to get that grade, students are going to need to feel confident and full of energy for the final stretch full of tests.

“Don’t worry about it too much. You have studied all semester for this week. All the study guides, homework, and projects were all built up for this.” Sam Stem, a junior at Erie High School continues, “If you understood the material earlier this year you will be completely fine.” Finals are just a test to see if you have truly learned something. And while it may be a large portion of your grade, it is not your total grade.

“It will not be as stressful and hard as you think,” mentions freshman, Kayla Kirchoffner, “I believe notes are going to be a huge part of finals this year.” This year students are allowed to use notes on almost every test making them more confident in their knowledge and understanding.

However, with finals being online this year teachers have resorted to finals being given to students in the form of projects. “I don’t mind finals being put into a project form. I feel like it is enticing at first, but in the end, it is a little more work but, at least it is something that you can produce,” says Stem.

Projects seem to be a way to be in control of the points you receive while being something that is different for the students at home. “Projects just allow us to be creative and do something different,” states Kirchoffner.

With these different means of finals, teachers seem to be more lenient with what the students can and can not do. Depending on the teacher and class, the final differentiates, in some classes such as physical education there is no final or in other classes, it is just a normal final. “It [the lenience on finals] is no final or barely any final, or for other teachers, it is just a normal final like they usually do. But right now I feel that the lenience of finals is probably about right,” states Stem.

As the semester starts to wrap up students are looking for last-second results from their finals. “I think that from notes to projects most students will most likely come out with a grade that they are happy with,” says Stem.